The Survival Game
by Akela Victoire
Summary: Trapped in the Omega Dimension, Tecna is on her own, until she meets a wizard who is in every way her opposite. Working together to survive in their frozen hell against climate, creatures and fellow prisoners alike, they eventually realise that their team up doesn't have to be as difficult as it seems...
1. Chapter 1

_**Happy New Year, guys and gals!** _A new story from me, just in time to start off 2015 with!

Some of you must be wondering what possessed me to put these two in a story as the main characters. I've done it before, but this is the first multi-chapter fic I have featuring them and I _still_ don't know...

Special shout out to **_rogue-scholar07,_ **who Beta-ed this first chapter for me. Thanks so much!

Anyway, let's get to the story, shall we?

* * *

Cold.

It was the first thing she felt as she awoke.

As her eyes fluttered and she began to rouse from her unconscious state, she also felt weighted; as if gravity itself didn't want her to move from where she was.

Her head throbbed as she finally managed to pull herself up into a sitting position.

Eyesight blurred, Tecna shook her head, trying to clear it.

Ice, rocks everywhere... She herself was lying near the edge of what looked like a rather steep cliff with no discernable end to the drop.

It was only rocks and ice she could see in the landscape around her, no matter where she looked.

No matter where she looked, all she only saw rocks and ice in the landscape around her.

She stood up slowly, slightly unsteady on her feet.

"Where am I?" she wondered aloud.

Then she remembered.

Being at Alfea and learning that the physical portal to the Omega Dimension located on Aisha's home planet of Andros was severely unstable.

All the chaos as she and the other Winx fought the monsters spewing from it, she and Bloom rescuing Taboc the Wise after his ship was destroyed by said monsters...

Being at the portal, trying to close it with the aid of his scrolls...

Scrolls were lost...

Her friends tried to close it together...

Oh dear Dragon...

She shook, not just from cold as she remembered the rest.

They couldn't.

She did. On her own.

Stepping into the portal to close the portal from the inside.

Gaining her Enchantix in the process.

Fighting against the portal...

_Waking up here..._

"No. No, no, no..." Tecna quavered.

"I can't be there. No. No way. Perhaps I am dead and in some sort of Limbo. Or this is just a dream. It has to be." she whispered.

"That's it. It has to be a dream. I must still be sleeping in my dorm at Alfea. That's why I feel so sluggish..."

She shivered again, feeling the cold right down to her bones.

"But you don't feel physical discomfort in a dream..." she said. "This is completely... This doesn't make any sense at all..."

She pinched herself.

"I felt that. So... I'm not dreaming then? I'm actually here in the Omega Dimension?" she shivered even more.

"Come on, men! I heard a voice around here. Let's go check it out." the gruff voice of a male she heard in the distance said.

Her eyes widened.

"I need to move. Come on, come on..." the technology fairy thought.

Tecna forced her legs to move, but they felt heavy.

She tried transforming, but her Enchantix form faded in and out because she lacked the energy to hold it.

"I'm in trouble..." she thought. "I have next to no magical energy left, I can't fight without magic and I am in completely unfamiliar terrain..."

She ran and ran, through twists and turns, up slopes until she could no longer run.

Finding an empty cave, she dashed inside and let herself slide down onto the cold, hard, rocky floor.

"Those guys sounded like bad news. I'm glad they couldn't find me..." her teeth began to chatter as she shook violently, her body protesting against the extreme cold it was forced to endure.

As the adrenaline wore off, she began to feel even more exhausted, cold and in pain, to the point of tears.

"What the hell happened? Why did I end up here in this horrible place? I'm tired, hungry, cold, scared, alone... I... I just can't!" she cried, the air around her so cold that even her tears began to frost over.

"No, no... Pull yourself together, Tecna. This isn't the end of world... _Though it seems like it... _You need to get it together or you'll never live to see outside this place again!"

It took a great effort, but eventually, she managed to get herself calmed down.

"First priority; find somewhere safe to bide my time. This place is crawling with dangerous criminals, free of their iceblock prisons, thanks to Valtor's interference..." she scowled for a brief moment.

She stood up and brushed herself off.

"But can I transform yet?" the technology fairy wondered.

She tried summoning up all her energy and for a brief second, felt the familiar energy flowing through her, except more powerful...

And then it stopped abruptly.

"No... My powers aren't back fully yet..." she moaned, almost ready to cry again.

"No, Tecna. No more crying. You won't last long if you cry a lot around here..." she got up and willed herself to be stronger.

She felt the cold around her go right down her spine and shivered violently.

"But first, I must obtain more... _practical_ garments for such extreme temperatures..." she scowled at her lilac miniskirt.

* * *

Tecna adjusted the hood of her jacket, making it fit more snugly around her face. It and the rest of her outfit was much like she remembered when she, Musa, Flora and Stella had accompanied Bloom to Domino back in Freshman year in an effort to help Bloom recover her powers after the Trix tried stealing them...

She'd rather be back on that frozen planet with her friends than on this frozen planet, all alone, with dangerous criminals roaming around...

She'd made herself a small, time-tracking device with scraps of old technology she'd found lying around the same day she was unwillingly thrown into this world.

Checking it, Tecna sighed. She had been down here for a week. and still, her magic wasn't fully healed, despite her achieving Enchantix.

It took a lot out of her for the most basic of spells. Making this outfit and the device had truly taxed her magic reserves and they would have been extremely simple tasks otherwise...

Both were worth it in her opinion though.

She still needed to work on a way to defend herself properly without her magic, until it came back.

_If_ it came back.

No, no... No use for pessimistic thinking down here...

"I say we scour the lower quadrant. See if any of the more pathetic inmates of this wasteland have any good stuff for us..." Tecna heard voices from below her, on another cliff.

Curious, she stepped nearer to the ledge to look.

She really shouldn't have.

The ice and rock cracked beneath her feet, causing her to fall before she could even let out an exclamation of shock.

"Oh look. We didn't even have to go far. This one practically fell right into our laps too..." one big, burly, monster of a man, wearing a full face mask with goggles and worn-looking winter gear spoke with a tone that gave her the creeps.

"What do we have here, Kaldur?" another similarly dressed man asked him.

"I don't know, Zaros. Never seen this little lady around these parts. A newbie? Perhaps we should show her the way things work around here..." Kaldur drew a long, slightly rusted sword at the same time several of the other men, Zaros included, drew their own weapons.

"Oh no you don't!" Tecna managed to raise a digital dome shield between herself and the men.

"This one has magic too! Feels similar to the red-haired menace's own, but different... More powerful somehow. Yet, still weak..." Kaldur mused as the men around him began attacking the digital barrier.

It crumbled quicker than Tecna had anticipated, so she did the only thing she could do.

She ran.

Ran like she never had before.

* * *

Tecna was trapped.

A cliff behind her with a deep drop and her unable to fly and Kaldur, Zaros and their gang behind her...

"Nowhere to run, little girl..." Zaros held up his sword.

"Nowhere to hide..." Kaldur added.

"Get away from me!" Tecna sent a few blasts of energy off that knocked around some of the gang, but the rest stood firm.

"You'll have to do better than that, girlie." Kaldur sneered.

"How about this? Is this better?" another male voice said from the back of the gang.

With that, about three men were sent soaring over Tecna's head and down into the abyss below.

Almost as one, the rest of the gang turned to look at the new arrival, allowing Tecna a glimpse of him.

A tall, muscled- but not overly so- man stood there, smirking and giving off no sign of fear whatsoever.

His hair, a darker shade of magenta than her own, was in a Mohawk style and his facial features sharp. His eyes- an usual shade of yellow- seemed to dance with... amusement?

"_You..._ Stay out of this!" Kaldur growled.

"Ganging up on a defenceless fairy? Not even I did that. It took the fun out of it all. And just when I thought you couldn't sink any lower, Kaldur..." the Mohawked man remarked casually.

_"We're warning you..." _Zaros raised his gun.

"Go ahead. Make my day. Haven't had a good fight since I got out that ice block and I could do with the exercise." Mohawk smirked.

Tecna put up as strong a barrier around herself as she could manage.

Zaros pulled the trigger and all hell broke loose.

The strange man revealed himself to be pretty adept in hand to hand combat and he was a shape shifter as well.

And he was a pretty powerful shape shifter, it seemed...

After kicking one man and sending him over the cliff, he shifted into what looked like a giant vulture and dropped another man over the cliff with his talons.

He then shifted into a strange sort of liquid, slipping beneath some men's feet and causing them to skid around whenever they tried to move, sending some over the edge of the cliff.

The liquid quickly rose up into a tall pile in the middle of the crowd of criminals, reshaping into the form of an even larger monster, roaring down at the remaining men, rather large, curved fangs bared, before the man resumed his human form.

"Would you like to test me further? I've been itching for a good fight since I got out my ice block, like I said before..." the wizard cracked his knuckles, a dark aura engulfing him.

Kaldur and Zaros looked at one another.

"Let's go, men. We'll be back for you another day..." Kaldur issued the order for his gang to retreat.

Tecna and the strange man looked at one another, then at the forms of the retreating men.

"Well, that's that..." the man said, casually, before returning his attention to the still in shock fairy.

"And why is such a pretty little thing like you doing down here in the Omega Dimension anyway?" The unfamiliar wizard sauntered over to her.

_"Stay... the hell away from me..."_ Tecna growled.

"Ah... How about no. You don't want me to stay away from you, fairy. We could do with each other's help if we're going to survive in this place..."

"Why should I help you and why would I want your help?" Tecna scoffed.

"I can sense great power coming from you and the fact that you've survived down here for so long is a testament to that... _much stronger than most fairies I've met in the past..._ As for how I can help you... I think I just demonstrated that..." He gestured to the cliff that some of her attackers had just been thrown over.

Tecna muttered to herself. "Fine. I suppose it _would_ be logical to pursue an alliance with you. For the time being, at least."

"Good. My name is Duman..." He offered his hand for a handshake.

Tecna looked at it sceptically for a few seconds, hesitant. She relented after a few seconds.

"And my name is Tecna." She shook his hand firmly.

"Well then Tecna, it's best that we get moving from this area. Those guys' friends are sure to come looking for them soon. I know that gang and that wasn't all of them..." Duman picked up some of their dropped weapons and motioned for Tecna to follow him.

Tecna moved, but suddenly felt unsteady on her feet as the world around her began to spin.

"Whoa there..." Duman moved forward and caught the fairy as she passed out, before she could hit the ground.

"Come on then. Gotta get you somewhere where you can recover your strength..." he picked her up easily and walked away from the scene, making the weapons he was carrying before float behind them.

* * *

**Reviews,** ladies and gentlemen, reviews! Make it your New Year's Fanfic Resolution to review more!


	2. Chapter 2

"Why did I do this? Why did I save her?" Duman wondered as he looked at the sleeping fairy lying on the simple bed.

He had brought Tecna back to his base, a cave filled with simple furniture and stock that he had either managed to create, modify or acquire from someone else- whether they wanted to give it up or not.

But he'd seen her walking into the territory of one of the roving gangs and for some reason, he felt like he needed to keep an eye on her.

It was a good thing for her that he did, or she would have been done for...

And besides, he sensed powerful magic within her. Fairy or not, she could be a valuable ally once she got up to full strength again...

He was roused from his thoughts by the sound of the girl... Tecna... rousing from her sleep.

"Urgh... Where the hell am I?" she muttered in a daze.

Duman couldn't help but chuckle at her expression.

"My dear, you're in the Omega Dimension. Remember?"

Tecna grew a little more awake. "Well, of course I remember that! Who wouldn't remember something like that? Just where... _is_ here exactly, Duman?"

"It's my little hidey-hole. My territory. Been here since a day or two after The Great Thaw." Duman explained.

_"The one caused by Valtor..."_Tecna muttered.

"What do you know about it?" Duman asked. "No one here really knows how it started anyway..."

"One of you... A convict named Valtor was freed by three witches who managed to break free of their ice blocks. One of those witches was an ice witch..." Tecna started.

"Kinda stupid sending her to a realm filled with ice, then..." Duman snorted with laughter at the stupidity of whoever made that call.

"...long story short, he got them all out of here through the physical portal on Andros and it destabilized. It had to be forced shut. _From the inside..._" Tecna grimaced at the memory.

"And you were the one to do that." Duman said in realization.

Tecna nodded. "If I hadn't, then Andros would have been completely destroyed. One of my best friends is the Crown Princess of Andros. I couldn't... I couldn't just stand by..."

"They say that loyalty is an admirable trait, but not to the degree where you get imprisoned in a place you don't belong..." Duman pointed out.

"If you had friends like mine... You wouldn't understand. You, unlike me deserve to be here." Tecna scowled at him.

"Yeah, I do. I deserve to be here after the 'horribly evil' things that I have done." he spoke in a tone that he could clearly see was annoying her further.

And she obviously saw that it amused him, annoying her even further.

"Anyway, it's my turn to ask a question. You said that 'I survived in this frozen wasteland for so long'... How would you know how long I was down here?" Tecna raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"An hour, a week, I don't really know. All I could sense was that you were a fairy not up to your full strength and you'd be easy pickings with the type of people who dwell down here. No idea what fairy stage you're at though. All I could tell was that you were weak." Duman shrugged.

"Enchantix. I'm an Enchantix fairy." Tecna answered quickly.

"Ah. Full-fledged fairy, huh? There's at least one other fairy I know of in this place, but she's only at basic level..."

"Other fairies? In this place? Really?" Tecna raised an eyebrow, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Yeah, there are. I don't know what kind of black and white morality you had wherever the hell you came from, but fairies can be evil too and are perfectly capable of committing horrible acts." Duman said coolly.

"I've never met an evil fairy in my life!" Tecna scoffed.

Duman stood up and looked her in the eye. "You have a lot to learn then, my dear."

"_Don't _call me dear." Tecna clenched a fist.

Duman chortled. "If you're going to get riled up that easily about a simple fact, then you're not going to last much longer down here, dear."

Tecna twitched.

"Now. Onto more pressing matters at the moment. Do you think you can use more of your magic yet?" the shape shifter pressed.

Tecna summoned a ball of energy that crackled and sizzled, but didn't dissipate until she actively let it.

"My magic is stronger and more stable now after my little... nap. How long was I... _sleeping_ for anyway?" Tecna wondered.

"The better part of two days." Duman answered. "According to your device."

"Wait, _what?_" Tecna practically jumped out of the bed. "Two days?! I was out for two days?!"

"Yes," Duman sounded nonchalant. "You were. I assume you were never really able to sleep since you had to keep one eye open, so you just crashed eventually."

"And you kept an eye out for me the whole time?" Tecna raised an eyebrow.

Duman simply nodded.

"I... wow. I guess I should be glad that you didn't murder me in my sleep..."

"Oh please. If I were inclined to kill you, would not be alive right now. Besides, I liked my victims to put up a fight. It was much more entertaining that way."

"You've killed people?"

"Several. That and a lot of other things is what got me iced. You never heard of me back in Magix or whatever realm it is that you came from?" Duman raised an eyebrow.

"No, never."

Duman remained silent. She'd never heard of him, even with what he'd done when he'd been free? Crimes like his were certainly not the kind that you could hide easily...

Or... perhaps they were so scared of the memories of the trouble and terror that he'd helped cause, that they wanted to forget all about it...

"Maybe later I'll tell you. For now, we need to get some food." Duman stretched and cracked his knuckles, before reaching for one of the weapons hanging on the wall.

"Hold on. You can hunt down here?!" Tecna asked in surprise.

"Sure you can. Quite a few ice-loving creatures roaming around. Some are actually edible. What did you do for food?"

"Um... I changed bits of ice into food?"

"Transfigured food is never as good as the real thing, dear. Now come on, I'll teach you a few hunting basics, dear." Duman twirled the sword in his hand, belted it and reached for a crossbow and some arrows.

"What did I say about calling me that?" Tecna reached for a sword, albeit hesitantly.

"What, _dear?_" Duman chortled.

"Don't dear me!"

"Well, dear. If you're going to get rankled over me calling you dear, dear, you're going to be so much fun to mess around with, dear." he broke out in full blown laugher at Tecna's expression.

"Just messing around with you. Come on, dear." Duman motioned for her to follow him, a smirk still on his lips.

Tecna grumbled under her breath and clenched her fists, but followed him anyway.

* * *

"That... was absolutely disgusting!" Tecna squirmed, obviously disgusted by the dead... _thing _Duman was currently carrying over his shoulder.

"You said that you wanted food, I got food. Now chow down or go hungry." he casually dropped the dead creature onto ground outside his cave.

"How do you even know that this thing is edible?" Tecna gingerly poked it with a booted foot, as if expecting it to resurrect itself and attack her.

"I ate it before and I'm not dead yet." Duman shrugged.

"_Yet_ being the key word there. You're disgusting."

"Eh... been called worse." Duman rummaged around in the cave and managed to find firewood.

"How do you even find firewood in an entirely iced realm?! There's no trees here!"

"Magic." Duman gathered the pile together outside the cave.

Tecna rolled her eyes, but lit the fire with a spark of electricity from a finger.

"Say, what are your powers anyway?" Duman watched as she lit the fire.

"Technology. Stemming from that, I can control electricity and probably draw power from lightning too." Tecna's eyes followed his every action as he started cooking the animal.

"Not much technology around here for you to draw power from, is there?" he noted as he poked at the now roasting animal with a stick.

"Nope. But I should be fine for a little while."

"How long is a little while?" Duman raised an eyebrow.

"I haven't tried to test my limits yet." Tecna replied wryly.

"Everyone has limits. You should know what yours are so you don't find out at a most... _inopportune _time..."

The fire crackled and sizzled; the only sounds around for several moments.

Duman studied Tecna's expression as she watched the fire, seemingly analyzing it.

For a fairy, and one so naïve at that, she wasn't doing so bad here.

A lot of other fairies and other light oriented beings would have probably died already or be close to it. The other fairy he met here was different since she had dark magic running through her veins.

But Tecna was somehow able to endure this place...

She was stronger than she realized. He'd only known her for a few days and he could already tell...

"So... is this thing done cooking yet?" Tecna asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah. Thought you said you didn't want any though. Maybe I should eat it all myself."

"You wouldn't dare." she glared at him.

"I would. I'm so evil, remember?" he mocked a statement from one of their earlier conversations.

"Hand it over. Now." Tecna's hand crackled with energy.

"Hmm... You may just have some fight in you after all." Duman ripped off a leg off the meat and handed it to her.

Tecna gingerly took a bite and paused. "It's... actually not that bad. Tastes like beef as a matter of fact..." she began to eat it more eagerly.

"I personally think it tastes more like pork." Duman shrugged as he ripped a chunk of meat from another leg, getting bits of it on the ground, much to the fairy's disgust.

"You at like such a... barbarian!"

"This is the Omega Dimension. No need for manners here. Manners could get you killed down here, actually." Duman spoke through mouthfuls of food, which disgusted her even more.

_"Tune would hate your guts."_ Tecna thought sadly at the thought of the pixie and Musa, her friend, the fairy to whom she was bonded. Her thoughts wandered over to her own bonded pixie, Digit. How was she doing without her bonded fairy?

They continued to eat in silence.

"Well," Duman broke the silence as they both finished eating. "I think the rest of this can be stored away for now. We can eat this later." he reached for a chest and locked the remainder of the roasted meat inside.

"Now, for sleeping arrangements. One bed, two of us. Someone's going to have to sleep on the floor." Duman said.

"Well, it's not going to be me." Tecna got to her feet, closed her eyes and concentrated, holding her hands out in front of her.

A black hammock appeared in a corner opposite the bed, blanket, pillow and all.

"See? problem easily solved." Tecna smirked at him as she got into the hammock.

"Now, you stay over there and don't try any funny business when I'm asleep." Tecna glared at him.

"I wouldn't dream of it." Duman spoke dryly.

"I'm serious!"

"I'm Duman. Nice to meet you, Serious." Duman kept his face straight.

"You are so infuriating!" Tecna turned her back to him.

"Thank you."

"Urgh!" Tecna put the pillow over her ears.

Duman chortled as he left the cave for a walk.

Her mannerisms around him. She tried to act all prim and proper, but she did have a spark of something in her that was anything but. He saw that when he took her hunting.

She needed to get rid of that prim and proper side if she wanted to survive down here.

And he would have more fun than he ever had down here, helping her to do that.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Happy Birthday to me! It's my birthday today! You know what I'd like as a birthday present? Lots of reviews!**_

* * *

Tecna tossed and turned in her sleep.

She broke out in a sweat as she groaned.

Duman, fast asleep in his own bed, failed to notice the fairy in the hammock, apparently having some disturbing dreams...

_She'd somehow found a way to let them know that she was still here and alive._

_But things had gone awfully wrong..._

_They were fighting off several creatures. Giant ice snakes, ice crabs, creatures that reminded her of that giant snow monster that she, Stella, Musa, Flora and Bloom had encountered on their adventure to Domino way back in their Freshman year after the Trix tried to take Bloom's powers..._

_Tattered pieces of wings were strewn across the icy ground liberally decorated with blood, bits of fabric and hair of different colours..._

_"No..." she whispered, sinking to her knees, completely horrified at the carnage around her._

_This was all her fault. If they hadn't come to save her. Try to save her, rather..._

_They'd failed._

_And now, they were all dead... Because of her..._

_A creature lunged for her, pale eyes flashing, teeth as long as swords bared..._

She sat up so suddenly from the hammock that it spun around and tossed her out of it, with her landing flat on her back on the cold, hard ground.

"Ow..." she moaned, rubbing her aching head and back. "I need to put some sort of charm on that thing to prevent that from happening. I don't want to fall out again..."

Glancing over at Duman she saw that he was still asleep.

Good. He'd probably make fun of her nightmares; dismiss them as another sign of weakness.

But everyone had a weakness, didn't they? Even Duman was bound to have one- though she did not know him long enough to discover what that weakness was...

Memories of the dream returned to her, inducing shudders at the thought of the gorier parts.

They'd come to save her and had failed so miserably...

She felt the need to cry start to build up, but she fought it back down. Crying was the last thing she needed to be doing here. Crying would not help her to survive.

She got to her feet and brushed herself off.

The device she'd made to tell time with sat on an ice block at the edge of her hammock closest to the cave's entrance. Why did she even make it? All it served to do was to remind her of how much time had passed in the outside world without her...

Twelve days had passed. Twelve days since the Winx Club was down a member. Twelve days away from the friends that she had been through so much together with...

The tears came again and she let a few slide down her cheeks.

"I... I shouldn't have done it. I didn't even have my Enchantix yet when I decided to try closing the portal myself. I had my basic form and I thought I stood a chance. I was such an idiot!" she sniffed.

She heard the rustling in the cave behind her and attempted to compose herself.

_"Come on Tecna. Suck it up. Don't let him see you cry."_ she thought.

"What are you doing just sitting out here, eh?" Duman walked out to sit next to her, yawning and stretching as he did.

"Thinking is all." Tecna shrugged.

"Oh? Or are you moping about being trapped down here?" the shape shifter asked.

"Huh?" Tecna sat up slightly straighter.

"Nothing escapes my animal senses. I could hear a fly breathing from a mile away, so who did you think you were going to fool with your brave façade?"

"You heard me cry out here all the time?" Tecna looked mortified.

"I sure did. I really can't afford to miss anything in this environment after all. Someone could try to take me out if I did." Duman shrugged.

Tecna was silent for a few moments.

"Well, excuse me for missing my friends and my life in the world outside of this frozen hellhole." she scowled.

"Sure you can miss them, but you gotta get over them eventually. Look around you. You know what this place is. You're not likely to ever get out of it!"

"My friends and I have done the impossible before..." Tecna retorted.

"Yes, but are your friends here with you now? No they aren't. Deal with it." Duman snapped.

"I'll mope about if I damn well please!" Tecna snapped back.

"Fine then. Let someone kill you while you mope. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll have to hunt later and I need to get ready." Duman stood up and went back into the cave.

Tecna fumed as she got up. "Why... why that little... urggh!" she grumbled as she stomped her foot in frustration. "Who the hell does he think he is, telling me how to feel?"

_"He's the guy who saved your life, remember?"_ a voice at the back of her head reasoned.

_"Yeah. He could be right. Sit back and think. Of all the Winx, you were always the most calm, generally level-headed and logical. Don't throw all of that away. You're still you!" _another voiceexclaimed.

Tecna thought it over. _"Well, it is true. I have always been most collected in times of danger... I shouldn't stop now. It's going to be hard, but I have to do it." _

She went back inside the cave.

"I'm going with you." Tecna declared, picking up a double-edged sword.

"And where do you think you're going with that, huh?" Duman raised an eyebrow.

"Hunting. With you." she strapped it behind her back and reached for some smaller knives.

"Like hell you are! If you can't take just being here, how will you handle actual hunting?"

"I went with you last time, didn't I?" Tecna retorted.

"And I did all the heavy stuff."

"I'm going whether you like it or not. Now quit whining. I want to get this over with before I'm actually hungry." Tecna fastened the knives and a few other supplies in a belt around her waist, made sure that they were all firmly in place, then strode out of the cave, leaving behind a surprised (but not displeased!) Duman.

* * *

"There's our target right over there..." Duman whispered as he pointed at a creature from behind a cluster of rocks where they were hiding.

Tecna's eyes widened for a fraction, but she quickly reigned in her surprise.

The... _thing_ looked like a giant, furry cow.

What was something that looked even remotely like a normal animal doing here? What did these creatures even eat? There was no vegetation down here...

If she ever got out of here, these creatures (along with everything else) would be interesting to write about... Those didn't

The thing had giant, twisted horns that looked as if they could gore through a bear.

But its long, razor sharp looking teeth, though. The horns didn't bother her.

At least not as much as those teeth...

She shook her head in an effort to clear it. The Trix were scarier than this. Lord Darkar was scarier than this. Valtor was scarier than this...

"Does this creature have a name?" she asked Duman.

"Not that I know of and neither do I care." Duman shrugged. "Now listen to me and listen well. Those horns are poisonous. Don't let them scratch you even slightly or you'll be a dead fairy within minutes."

"How do you know that?"

"I've seen creatures like this outside the Omega Dimension before." Duman said simply.

"Now, let's go..." He snuck up behind the creature, while Tecna moved to one side, just in case.

Even without shifting into a more graceful animal or even one that was just a bit lighter on its feet, he managed to get extremely close to the animal without it noticing.

Tecna's hands crackled with energy, ready to cast a spell if need be.

He cast his own spell that encased it in a giant, purple net, glowing with black energy.

It roared, obviously vehemently objecting to its entrapment.

Duman waved his hands, causing the net to go even tighter.

"A little help here would be much appreciated, Tecna!" Duman shouted.

"Stand back!" Tecna charged forward, prepping an attack.

"ELECTRIC BLAST!"

A burst of crackling energy burst from her hands and engulfed the creature, it roaring in pain and fury as the electricity coursed through its body.

"Whew. That blast may have been..." Tecna wiped her brow. "...a bit overpowered..."

Duman walked around the beast, inspecting it, yet not touching it. "It's dead, alright." he observed. "Your little electrical attack practically fried it. Is it safe to touch yet?"

"In a few minutes, it should be. The electricity running through it won't take that long to wear off. I've never dealt a lethal blow though..." Tecna sunk down onto a nearby rock, breathing heavily.

"I'll tell you now that you'll have to do that a lot more down here, whether on man or beast. They'll kill you first if you don't..." Duman leaned against an icy wall, looking nonchalant.

Tecna grew horrified at the thought.

"I don't know if I can. I've never killed before..." Tecna paused. "Well, there was Lord Darkar, but I think that was more of an entrapment than a killing..."

Duman stood up straighter.

"You... fought the Shadow Phoenix?" he asked in shock.

"Yes... I wasn't alone though. I had my friends with me." Tecna said.

"Friends... Were these friends of yours at Enchantix level yet? Were they actually fairies like you too?" he asked her.

"Yes, they were fairies like me an no, none of us had gotten Enchantix yet. The fact that we survived a fight against the Shadow Phoenix... Lord Darkar... at that level... in his territory... It really was a miracle..." Tecna said.

"Why were you even down in Shadowhaunt anyway? You don't look like the adventurer, daredevil type..."

"I'll tell you while we take care of this thing. It should be safe..." Tecna went to touch the beast. "...it is safe now."

"Alrighty then. Let's get to work and you can tell me what I'm sure will be a riveting tale..." Duman pulled a machete from his waist belt and wandered around the creature's body, as if wondering which part of it to cut first.

"It is an interesting story and it begins with my friends and I in our Sophomore year at Alfea..." Tecna started the story as Duman began cutting away at the beast, somehow wielding the machete with a surgical precision.


End file.
